DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - Heads up for many North Texas cities: a yearly maintenance means the water is going to temporarily smell and taste different.
The North Texas Municipal Water District is starting their yearly water maintenance this month. The district serves the following cities: Allen, Farmersville, Forney, Frisco, Garland, McKinney, Mesquite, Plano, Princeton, Richardson, Rockwall, Royse City, and Wylie.
For the next few weeks, the water is disinfected using only chlorine, instead of chlorine and ammonia. This can cause the smell and taste of chlorine to be more noticeable.
It was about this time last year during this routine maintenance that the changes in the water alarmed so many North Texans, it reached environmental activist Erin Brockovich.
“North Texas Municipal Water District employees, families, we all live here too,” says Janet Rummel with the NTMWD. “Safe drinking water is a top priority for all of us.”
There are ways to help the water taste or smell less like chlorine. You can put a vitamin C tablet or citrus oil in it, or just leave an open pitcher in the fridge for a few hours. That will cause the smell to dissipate.
The NTMWD resumes their normal water disinfectant process on April 1st.